NZ Test tour of Eng, June 2-27

[Arthur Crabtree]

Woah. A wicket. 91 run partnership. Maybe 30m more then declare.

Jamieson having a hit.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Despite the collosal total, only two people have fifties.

[Durhamfootman]

Potts finally gets Mitchell, a few hours and 90 runs after he should have had him.

Good game this cricket malarky... win the toss, elect to field, drop the opposition all the way to 550 and then collapse in a heap twice on successive days.... easy

[Durhamfootman]

we've seen how little there is on offer for the fielding side, so what's the betting that NZ now tear the England batting line up to shreds?

[Durhamfootman]

over rate watch

45 mins left until the scheduled close of play and England have bowled 58 overs, 18 of them spin. so that's about 11 overs an hour or 8 unbowled overs in every session.... despite bowling 18 overs of spin

They'll have to let NZ bowl until midnight to catch up all the overs that England didn't bowl

[Durhamfootman]

that didn't take long

[Durhamfootman]

although Crawley probably looked stylish while getting out for 4 in the second over of the innings

[Arthur Crabtree]

There was rain, so should be a late finish.

I was going to predict two down at the close.

[sussexpob]

that didn't take long

Always the same dismissal too

[bigfluffylemon]

There was an hour rain delay, wasn't there?

The pitch didn't do a lot, but it's not as flat as NZ's total suggests. England should have had NZ out for about 350 if they held their catches.

I think we all know the script here though. England collapse in a heap for under 200 despite the pitch not doing much. NZ then flay a tired England attack for another couple of hundred for 3-4 wickets to set England 500+ to win and five sessions or so to survive, then after a reasonable start that gives us a little hope, England collapse in a heap again.

Then despite only scoring 400 in two innings, the powers that be decide the bowling is at fault because we conceded 550 (ignore the dropped catches) and had a bad second innings (on a hiding to nothing with the lead) so the bowlers are changed around while we stick with the same failing batsmen.

Lees looks jittery as anything.

[Arthur Crabtree]

19.05 finish.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Lees dropped on 12. So can he make NZ pay for it?

[bigfluffylemon]

At least Vince got 30 before getting out driving.

What just happened? Lee's was caught but it looked like the fielder put it down from his hands?

Still, both Lee's and Pope are all over the place. NZ getting the ball to do more than England did.

I know the Oval is a batter friendly wicket, but how does Pope have a FC average over 50 and yet struggle so much in tests? To be fair, he's not a number 3, but still.

[bigfluffylemon]

Lees is like Denly mk 2. Or Vince. He's made it to 20 in 7 of his 9 innings so far but has a high score of 31.

[sussexpob]

NZ returning the favours with these drop catches